Here is a book of interest to folklorists, historians, biologists, hunters and trappers. Manly Hardy was a nineteenth century businessman from Brewer, Maine.  Like his father, Hardy owned and worked farmlands and woodlots, and two wharfs along the Penobscot River. But the Hardys’ primary source of income was as a dealer in animal hides and raw furs. The father of Maine historian Fannie Hardy Eckstorm, Hardy hunted and traveled along the Down East coast early in life, and regularly took trips to the forests of eastern, central, and northern Maine throughout his life.  He retired early from business and devoted much of his time to collecting birds and writing about Maine’s early game laws and his wildlife observations.  Hardy’s writings provide detailed and unique insights into Maine’s natural and social environments from the mid- 1800s through the turn-of-the-twentieth century.

Krohn's biographical sketch of Hardy provides an introduction to Hardy’s re-published articles that follow.   Of these, two are long pieces about trips he took in the North Maine Woods; the others are about caribou, cougar, lynx, moose, otter, porpoise, sea mink (extinct), wolves, and other wildlife species.  Hardy published in a number of scientific journals and newspapers, but most of his works appeared in Shooting and Fishing and Forest and Stream.  Also included in this book is an annotated bibliography of Hardy’s known writings.